Congratulations
by Naseka
Summary: Clarisse is late and Joseph tells a lie. A look into four seperate years of their lives, starting with 1981 and ending with 2005.
1. 1981

I am really really sorry I never update my stories, I work 50 hour weeks and go out every weekend and until recently have been without internet cos I moved out of home. I will one day finish the other ones.

This however is just a 4 or 5 short chapters story, you get one a day. I started it yesterday and I've almost finished it.

This story looks into four (or five) seperate years of Clarisse/Joseph's life.

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1981

Clarisse sat on the seat of the lavatory looking down at her underwear - nothing. She wiped the tears as they fell from her eyes and sniffled at what hadn't come, but should have come two weeks ago. It was unlike her to skip a period, but there she sat fourteen days late wondering what she had done to deserve this. Of course it wasn't her fault, she wasn't the one who'd said, "I don't like wearing them, it takes fifty per cent of the feeling away. It's like jumping into the bath with a wetsuit on."

But all the same, it was her fault because she'd asked him to take a break for an hour, she'd locked the door behind her when she entered the room that night and she was the one who said, "I need you."

So in all reality it was both their faults.

Rolling her underwear back up her legs she sighed and banged her head against the wall, what was she going to tell her husband? She'd never been late before, there could only be one possibility...

"Joseph I need to talk to you," Clarisse spoke in a panicked voice as she struggled to maintain his pace as he moved swiftly down the hall.

"I'm actually busy right now, sorry. There's some sort of comotion going on downstairs, a fight I believe."

She clung to his arm trying to slow him down, but he continued walking.

"I'm late."

Suddenly he stopped and turned to her with a shocked expression on his face, "What?"

She opened the door to a vacant room and threw him inside.

"Late? What do you mean late?"

She practically screamed at him, "Oh what else does being late mean?"

"Are you sure? You might have just-"

Tears were falling again, "It's been two weeks! I've never been late before - EVER!"

Joseph's face was white as snow, there's no way in hell he could believe he'd knocked up the queen, "So are congratulations in order?"

Her eyes widened, "Congratu? Congratulations? I am carrying a mistake of a child and you're congratulating me?"

"You and the king, a new heir to the throne! Don't you think that's grounds for congratulations?"

Clarisse's claws came out and she clenched her teeth, "It's your child, not Ruperts! Do you think if it were Ruperts I'd be speaking to you about it?"

"My child?" He suddenly sounded chirpy, "My? You think this is my child? No, no, no," he faked a laugh, "there is no way you're carrying my child, it's impossible. In fact I'll tell you why it's impossible, because I've been shooting blanks ever since...well...ever since I could shoot."

"No, it is possible because you're the only man I've been with in a long time and there's no other way this could have happened."

"I'm sorry I can't be the one you blame for this accident, perhaps you should intterrogate one of your other lovers?"

He smiled slyly, still white with disbelief.

Clarisse glared at him, "I have no other lovers."

"Then perhaps somebody snuck into your room at night and impregnated you? Or you were too drunk to remember? I don't know. I can't give you an answer as to how this happened. Sorry."

He exited the room and walked into another room across the hall, gasping for breath as soon as he'd closed the door behind him, "Shit!"

He was sweating now, "Shit, shit, shit, shit, shit!"

Clarisse was crying in the other room, it was obvious to her that he'd bullshitted his way out of this to escape responsibility. At that point she decided whatever it was they'd shared the past six months was going to end right there.

She didn't sleep at all that night, she was too busy rushing to the bathroom every five minutes to see if any change had been made to the color of her underwear, unfortunately she had no luck, however relief washed over her the following week when she sighted the first drop of blood upon her lingerie, her spirits had lifted, but her love for Joseph had sadly died.


	2. 1996

Thanks for reviewing the last chapter. Next one should be up tomorrow or the next day.

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1996

"It's a boy!" The doctor whispered as he handed the tiny blue package to its joyful father.

"My first born son," Joseph almost cried.

"And the last," his rather exhausted thirty-four year old girlfriend Alice panted after the sheer exhaustion of giving birth to such a big boy.

Joseph held her hand and showed her their son, he then kissed her forehead and smiled, "Well done."

They'd already decided on a name when she first found out she was pregnant, his name was to be Joshua Luke Martin-Hills.

The two parents were overjoyed with the safe arrival of their new son, and had a party to celebrate.

It was held at the palace by special order of the king. A private party with no members of parliament taking up valuable space, with the exclusion of Joseph's good friend the Prime Minister and family. They too were celebrating the birth of their first daughter.

The party was going quite swell, until the queen pulled Joseph aside with a look of anger on her face.

As soon as they were out of sight she slapped him ever so hard across the cheek, "What was that for?"

She slapped him even harder this time and he grabbed her arms, squeezing them until she screamed.

"You a liar! An asshole! Rat! Scum! The lowest form of human I have ever met!"

"Actually I think the word you're looking for is congratulations? Incase you didn't know, I just became a father. This is an exciting event for me."

He released her and she slapped him again, causing him to violently grab her and hold her against the wall, "What's your problem?"

"You told me you couldn't do it! fifteen years ago you told me you couldn't father a child and now all of a sudden you have a son!"

"You're bringing up something that happened fifteen years ago? I'm surprised you remember that far back."

"Of course I remember, everytime I look at your face I remember," she shot him nasty looks until reality sunk in, "I knew I shouldn't have believed you, but I clung to the hope that there was some other possibility, some sort of explanation like... an immaculate conception. Thank god it was a false alarm, I wouldn't have wanted to bring a child into the world who's father doesn't even know the meaning of the word responsibility."

Joseph raised his eyebrow, "You call sneaking off to the security room in order to get a bit of action before bedtime responsible?"

She struggled in his grasp ready to tear him apart, yet he didn't release her. Instead he dragged her into the cupboard under the stairs and held her hands, "Look, I admit that I lied to you about the whole not being able to have children thing, but believe me when I say I did it for you!"

Clarisse threw her head back and faked a laugh, "You did it to save your own bacon! Admit it! You didn't want a child intterupting your perfect bachelor lifestyle."

"Would you just shut up and hear me out? I did it to protect you. Do you think the queen's mysterious pregnancy would have gone unnoticed by the public? That nobody would notice a new "heir" coming into the world? Your husband would have known instantly it wasn't his and believe me, he wouldn't have taken it lightly. I figured the best way to deal with the situation was to keep my distance and make everyone believe it was impossible for us to have ever had relations, including you. Clarisse, if you had mothered an illegitimate child, your world would have collapsed. You would have had nowhere to run, your family would have suffered humiliation. I assumed that if you'd actually fallen pregnant you'd think of some way out of it, I thought you'd terminate the pregnancy or go away for a few months on an unplanned holiday until it was born and you could do something about it."

The look on her face was of pure disgust, "Do something about it? What? Put it up for adoption? Never."

"You still don't get it. I tried to keep you in the lifestyle you're accustomed to. Given the chance, I would have been more than happy to take you away and start a family with you, but I knew I couldn't give you what he could. I knew you would never leave your rich, royal husband and run off with a low life like me, so I told a lie."

Tears were pouring from her eyes, she pleaded for him to release her so she could wipe her eyes, he let her.

"Believe me now?"

Sniffling, she turned away from him, "Why didn't you ask?"

He trembled slightly, "Ask you what?"

"To come away with you."

Attempting to wipe the falling tears from her eyes, he mumbled, "You would have said no. I know you would have said no."

Pushing past him and opening the door she whispered, "Then you don't know me at all."

Joseph's face fell as he realised what he thought of as impossible, might have been possible after all. The thing he wanted most in his life could have been his 17 years ago. Reluctantly he walked back to the party, face red from being slapped so many times. Suddenly he wanted to slap his own face for just assuming the love of his life wouldn't have left the palace to live with him, when in actual fact, that's what she wanted all along.


	3. 2000

Thanks for reviewing, next chapter should be up in two days - I'm busy tomorrow.

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2000

"For heavens sake, Joseph, he's barely been in the ground five minutes!"

Joseph hastned after the queen as she walked the gardens, "It's been almost a year now, time for you to move on."

"And what about your girlfriend and son, what will they think?"

"She left me for somebody younger last month. So I figured you're single, I'm single, I' m sure you still have feelings for me. Why not explore that?"

Abruptly she stopped and turned to him, heart racing, "Becuase I lost all feelings I had for you a long time ago. Your chance has long since passed. We should have had this conversation nineteen years ago, but instead, you decided to throw a bunch of lies my way."

"Come on, Clarisse that was last millenium. We've discussed this before - resolved it even - it doesn't need to be brought up again."

"It was never resolved. When you speak of 'us' in a romantic sense, it's the first thing I think of and I cannot forget how I was treated by you. So don't you dare tell me it doesn't need to be brought up."

"I told you a thousand times I'm sorry, now can you just forget it so we can move on with our lives?"

Stopping at a secluded concrete bench, she sat down and crossed her arms, "I will never really forgive you for this, nor will I forget it. I will decide when and if ever we should be a couple and when I do, you'll be lucky if I let you know."

He sat down beside her and took her hand, "I know I've done some bad things where you're concerned, but I want you to know that I will never stop loving you."

He pressed his lips against her cheek and she closed her eyes, "Every time I've been with someone else I always think of that night you entered the security room, took off your pink dressing gown, sat beside me and pretended you were interested in what I was doing."

Blushing slightly at the memory, Clarisse let him continue.

"You held my hand and kissed my lips ever so cautiously. I remember how startled you were when I slipped my tongue in and let my hands loose over your body, caressing your thighs until your legs parted and made way for me."

Joseph was a fast worker, they'd only been there a minute and her entire neck was covered with saliva.

"You were so good that night, the cautious, do-gooder turned wet and wild in all of three minutes. And every time we met after that was just as good as the first time, nobody else can compare to you. I'd give anything for the chance to go there again."

Clarisse's eyes fluttered open when he went to kiss her mouth and abruptly she stood up, wiping her neck, "Don't even think about it."

Following her lead, he rose as well and placed his hands gently on her shoulders, "Just do one thing for me, will you? Look into my eyes and tell me you feel nothing for me."

Her eyes drifted from his chest to the bench, then she felt Joseph's hands shifting lightly from her shoulders to her face, "There's nothing I wouldn't do for you. Nothing I wouldn't say to earn your forgivness."

She looked into his puppydog eyes and suddenly remembered why she fell in love with him in the first place, "Is that a promise?"

Nodding, he took her hand and lightly kissed it, "Yes."

Her eyes sprung open and she turned away, giggling to herself, "You say you would do anything for me, so would you suffer the ultimate humiliation?"

Narrowing his eyes, his lip curled, "What do you have in mind?"

Two days later...

"I feel like such an idiot," Joseph muttered as he walked naked down the streets of genovia on a cold winter's day, "She had better be worth it."

The queen's punishment seemed a little harsh considering all he'd done was lie to her once, even though it was for her own good as much as his own. His task was to walk from the far end of town all the way to the palace doors then up the staircase and into his room where his clothes lay waiting for him on the bed.

'Being dressed seems an eternity away,' he thought to himself as he walked past the bakery with his hands clasped in front of his genitalia, customers pointing and laughing, shouting comments about his "sexy butt".

It took him over an hour to reach the gates of the palace and it wasn't much better once he arrived, mainly because everybody there knew him. The maids giggled behind whatever they were holding, the security men commented to each other about their head's stupidity. He held his head high and walked up the stairs and finally reached his room, slamming the door on the faces of those trying to peep in. Quickly he grabbed his clothes and begun throwing them on, to his suprprise he was being watched.

Feint footsteps made thier way from the bathroom to where he stood. Clarisse looked down on him and covered her smiling face behind her hand, trying hard not to laugh at his frozen body shivering in front of her, "Congratulations, you passed the test."

"So I'm forgiven?" He asked in a rather grumpy manner.

"For now," she leaned in close to him and whispered in his ear, "But you must know this is the very last chance you get. Hurt me again and I will not hesitate to exclude you entirely from my life."

She held his hands and moved towards him, lips slowly making thier way to his, but stopping just before impact, "Welcome back," she whispered.

Without kissing him, she backed away and walked into the bathroom, pulling on a large mirror until it revealed a small passageway to her office. She stepped inside and shifted her eyes to his crotch, "By the way, you seem a lot more...shrivelled since we last met."

Before he had a chance to reply, she disappeared behind the mirror leaving him with a sense of unease, "It's a very cold day!" He spoke rather loudly at the secret door, before dressing himself and waiting for the voices outside his door to fade away before stepping outside.


	4. 2005

2005

Throughout their entire five-year relationship, Joseph had done his best to redeem himself to Clarisse. He made sure he was always ten minutes early for their dates, he'd always call and ask how she was if he didn't see her during the day and he always made sure he looked his best when he knew there was a chance of seeing her. Joseph wanted to show her he was ready to settle down - ready to be married - yet as he dance with her in the ballroom one night, he realised that what was on his mind wasn't on hers at all.

He wasn't angry about being refused marriage, he felt sad. After five years of good behaviour it was apparent she still didn't trust him. All the sucking up in the world obviously wasn't going to rid Clarisse of the anger she'd been carrying for the past twenty-four years. She hadn't mentioned the pregnancy scare for the entire time they had been together, but Joseph was almost certain it still plagued her mind. He believed this is why she turned down his marriage proposal, because she still held a grudge. It would explain why she'd barely allowed him to touch or even kiss her over the past five years.

Feeling heartbroken and insecure, he went to see her the following morning in her office. She'd been staring off into space for so long that she didn't even notice he'd entered the room.

"Answer me this," he asked, voice shaking with nerves, "Why did you say you forgive me, when it's obvious you still resent me?"

Surprised he had actually come to see her, she was lost for words.

"I walked the naked mile for you. I earned your forgiveness and you still don't forgive me. I've been killing myself trying to please you and make sure your happy, trying to prove to you I'd make a good husband."

Clarisse stared open-mouthed as he walked up to her and pointed his finger directly at her face, "Remember when you said I was on my last chance? Well now you're on yours," he staggered to the door, walked out and then slammed it behind him.

Two days later...

"Congratulations!"

The whole town chorused as the newlyweds walked down the steps of the church smiling and waving. Joseph held his new wife's hand tight in his to make sure she didn't change her mind and run away, she seemed genuinely happy as she stepped into the limousine still waving at the crowds. Loosening his grip on her hand, Joseph entered the car as well and told the driver to go. He then put up the privacy screen and turned to Clarisse eager to start questioning her, "What made you change your mind?"

Looking down at their entwined hands, she smiled, "I've been thinking about us all night and all morning, I decided that you were right and I hadn't really forgiven you. I spent so many years hating you for what you did that I completely forgot about all the good things we've done together. I think now I'm finally ready to move on and accept that what happened in the past should stay in the past."

"And it only took you twenty-four years to realise it."

"I really am sorry for how I've treated you." she whispered, angry with herself for not having had the maturity to forgive and forget about it.

Joseph held her chin, pressed his lips to hers and for the first time in years, she didn't back away. It was nice, Joseph thought, to finally be accepted.

Two hours later...

"Grandma," Mia shouted from outside the door to her grandmother's suite, "I know you said it's polite to be twenty minutes late, but you've been in there over an hour, we have to leave for the reception now!"

"Oh how did I go without this for so long?" Clarisse gasped, not even registering the feint yelling coming from the other side of the door, all she could think about was the 150 pounds of naked man moving around on top of her. He was almost as good as she remembered, after many years it was practically expected that he'd be a little slower, but nevertheless he catered for her needs and then achieved his own before collapsing from sheer exhaustion. Only then did they hear the shouting coming from outside the door.

"How long have we been in here?" Joseph puffed.

Clarisse's eyes widened when she looked at her watch, "Gosh, it's been over an hour! We were supposed to be at the reception fifteen minutes ago!"

Joseph raised his eyebrows, "Sorry, my fault. I know we only came in here with the intention of changing clothes, but as soon as you pulled your zip down and I saw that gorgeous body of yours, I didn't want to wait a minute longer."

Suddenly in a rush to get out of there, Clarisse smiled and threw on the dress she'd originally been wearing, then tried her best to fix her "mysteriously" messed up hair. A few strands still hung loose, but she would fix them in the car.

Joseph took a little longer to get himself ready, he was still exhausted from having done most of the work just a few minutes ago, "I do believe my stamina is deteriorating."

"Nevertheless, I got what I wanted," Clarisse gloated, fixing his tie, "twice."

A short embrace left Joseph confused about whether he was supposed to put on his pants, or take them off. Mia banging on the door brought him back to reality and he was dressed within seconds. After checking their appearances one more time, Clarisse opened the door.

To her surprise Mia fell forward and almost knocked her over, "Ahh! Finally! I've been knocking for ages, why didn't you answer?"

The newlyweds blush at each other and held hands, "We didn't hear you," Clarisse replied.

"And why did you say you were going to get changed when you're obviously wearing the same dress?"

Joseph was panting slightly from earlier, "We are terribly sorry, princess."

"What could you have possibly been doing in there all this time?"

Mia looked inside the room and saw the crumpled sheets laying on the bed, "Oh gross, now I'm beginning to wish I hadn't pushed you two together. Yuk! Couldn't you have waited three more hours?"

She walked away as disgusting images of her grandparents started running through her mind. Joseph leaned his head out the door and yelled, "No we could not," before taking Clarisse in his arms and giving her what would be the first of many kisses to come.

Finally everything was resolved - he was forgiven, she was happy and thanks to Mia they both had the fairytale ending they always wanted.

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Yay, actually finished it sort of on time. Thanks for reading and reviewing. Hope it wasn't too much of a disappointment that I've decided to end it here. You guys are gonna love my next story if I ever finish it.


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